Relatives and friends attend the funeral prayer of Bangladeshi activist Xulhaz Mannan in Dhaka on April 26, 2016.
Two leading gay rights activists were hacked to death on April 25, at an apartment in Bangladesh's capital, police said, the latest deadly attack on minorities in the Muslim-majority nation. Police did not identify the victims, but an official from Roopbaan, the country's only LBGT magazine, named one as editor and gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan. / AFP PHOTO / Rehman Asad

Editor Of LGBT Magazine Hacked To Death In Bangladesh

Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Roopbaan, a magazine and activist group for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Bangladesh, has been hacked to death, alongside a colleague, identified in local media as Tanay Mojumdar.

The murders were claimed by ISIL, although the Bangladeshi government insists the organisation has no presence in the country.

Both men were openly gay, and were fighting for gay rights in a country where homosexuality remains technically illegal, and is a highly sensitive subject. They are the sixth and seventh victims of fatal machete attacks since the start of 2015. The others had been targeted because they expressed secular or atheist beliefs.

There have also been a number of attacks on religious minorities in the country. There have been calls on the government to confront the extremists, who appear to act with a sense of impunity.